Improve the appearance of the dock shelf

[pcguru83]

A white dock to match the menubar and my MacBook.

I'm digging those arrows. Could I get those?

 

[TheSpaz]

A white dock to match the menubar and my MacBook.

Wow! That actually looks really cool! I like how the reflections are really subtle... almost look a little blurred but, that may just be the jpeg compression. Anyways... that white Dock looks almost like ice or something. I'm not a fan of the arrows or the crosswalk divider but, I like the background color. I wish the 2D Dock was this customizable... makes me wish I liked the 3D Dock

 

[cloudnine]

Here is the Macbook Pro's dock.. I used the automated one on this because I just wanted a nice shinny black. I change my wallpaper too often to have a specific colour on my lappy

p.s. Here is the link to the installer.

I have to have that wallpaper... heh... any chance of you posting it?

(and not to get off-topic...), I have my dock as a dark, smoked glass, and changed the little blue indicators to white so it's much easier to see

 

[TheStu]

Wow! That actually looks really cool! I like how the reflections are really subtle... almost look a little blurred but, that may just be the jpeg compression. Anyways... that white Dock looks almost like ice or something. I'm not a fan of the arrows or the crosswalk divider but, I like the background color. I wish the 2D Dock was this customizable... makes me wish I liked the 3D Dock

The 2D dock can be customized in the following ways:
-The border around the dock, and a little bit of the dark grey right inside the border
-The indicators
-The resize arrows (for when you adjust the size, duh)
-The seperator (|||||| thing)

The dark grey field cannot be removed, at least not from within /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock(Show Package)/Contents/Resources. The file is simply not there. I tested this by backing up that folder, and then deleting all the .PNGs inside the original. Restarted the Dock, and all I had left was the dark grey strip and my icons. No indicators, no border, no seperator... nothing.

I am searching desperately for it though since I want the 3D dock back on the side...

 

[cloudnine]

Same person you commented about earlier

um I don't know the exact date of that wall but I got it from http://www.mandolux.com/ So I will just attach it in the 1440x900 version that I have.

er... i missed this. thanks!

 

[ple]

I'm digging those arrows. Could I get those?

Sure.

 

[stellarceltic]

Does the dock floor image have to be a specific height? Because if it accepts taller images, then you could add on a virtual "back" to the dock so that your icons would look like they're actually contained in a real shelf and not spilling onto the desktop! That way the desktop image won't make the icons hard to see.


Take the dock graphic that looks like this:

 ______________
/______________\

And make it look like this:

  ____________
 |            |
 |____________|
/______________\

I think it can be done...

I did that by accident. I mistakingly replaced the frontline.png file. It seems like you can make that any height you want, and when it's higher than the dock, it looks like a background.

I don't have the Photoshop skill, but maybe someone can turn frontline.png into a shelf...

 

[brbubba]

I'm at work on a PC at the moment, so I haven't had a chance to try and download the rainbow dock files.

I see what you mean about the frontline problem. Hmm, tricky. Is there any way it could just be a translucent glass image of some sort? Might be less jarring that the white line?

Edit: Downloaded the rainbow dock zip at work, I get the whole lot of files plus some preview images and other stuff.

I finally got it to work with winrar under parallels. The archive is screwed up somehow. The reason it looks annoying is because he doesn't seem to include a frontline.png file, so it's the stock file.

Let me know again what type of a look you were trying to achieve and it should be an easy edit.

 

[thirdeyeopen666]

Awesome.

A white dock to match the menubar and my MacBook.

Thanks for the inspiration, and the arrow pngs I've never been a big fan of white UI elements, but the shiny white reflective dock is stunning.

 

[Halsey12]

http://www.kurthalsey.com/el/darkmetal.zip

There is a link to the files for my dock. I made it to match my desktop wallpaper. When I replaced the frontline with a darker one, it looked dumb because of the indicator glows- it just makes this "double glow" that bothers my eyes. Anyways, you can see it in the attachment below.

 

[Halsey12]

I also have a yellowish wallpaper dock, and you can grab the files here-

http://www.kurthalsey.com/el/wallpapergradient.zip

 

[Rhosfelt]

With all the talk of new indicators, I made some myself to match everything again

 

[roblogic]

A white dock to match the menubar and my MacBook.

That looks incredible, so much better than the default dock. Thanks for providing the indicator pngs - I lightened them up to work with one of the dark docks. This is my favorite setup so far.

 

[brbubba]

Here are some more simple and very easy to implement ideas. If anyone has a color combo request I can whip it up real quick. In the meantime enjoy these two.

gradient_blue_to_red.zip

gradient_purple_to_black.zip

 

[cChris]

Space dock with old apple logo indicators:



I think I'll make it lighter so the reflections will show a little more.
I also have a granite/slate one I like. I'll try to post it tomorrow.

 

[lofight]

Space dock with old apple logo indicators:

I think I'll make it lighter so the reflections will show a little more.
I also have a granite/slate one I like. I'll try to post it tomorrow.

apple fan nice very nice

 

[un1ty]

A white dock to match the menubar and my MacBook.

That looks great! Can you share the dock image? Also, where did you get that wallpaper?

 

[CavemanUK]

Anyone else think its funny that its taken us a week to come up with 10+ gorgeous dock styles when it took apple over a year to come up with one hideous one!

 

[lofight]

Anyone else think its funny that its taken us a week to come up with 10+ gorgeous dock styles when it took apple over a year to come up with one hideous one!

that's not apple took so long, it's all the software, try to make that in a year!!

 

[TheSpaz]

Anyone else think its funny that its taken us a week to come up with 10+ gorgeous dock styles when it took apple over a year to come up with one hideous one!

Yeah, cause that's all Apple did all year was ponder what color to make the Dock. I think Apple's 3D Dock look better than most Docks in this thread. Some just look so horrible. I don't know how you can stand looking at those. I like the white one and I like the glossy black one but, the patterned ones look so goofy... an eye sore.

 

[zen]

Have yet to try the rainbow dock that was posted yesterday, but love the gradient ones and the wallpaper one. Very very cool. I have some old fashioned wallpaper that I'd love to try and use. My photoshop skills are hopeless - perhaps I could post the wallpaper desktop picture here and someone can have a go at making the dock from it?

Also, that white dock that was posted earlier. LOVE IT! Can you please post the files?

I think we almost need a dock modification subforum, or at the very least have this thread made sticky!

 

[les5k]

How to implement Dark Doc.

After I download the DarkDock file and modify it, how do I actually replace it as my Dock?

 

[zen]

After I download the DarkDock file and modify it, how do I actually replace it as my Dock?

The dock files are in system>library>core services>dock>contents>resources called 'scurve'. You need to right-click on Dock and go "show package contents" to get into contents>resources. Back up the scurve files in here first as you will be rewriting them.

As the Dock is running, the easiest thing to do is use Terminal to force the newly downloaded files to overwrite the existing ones.

Open Terminal and go:

sudo cp /Users/<nameofyourhomefolder>/Downloads/scurve-m.png /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/scurve-m.png

Replace scurve-m.png with the files names of each of the files in DarkDock.

The in Terminal go killall Dock, and the new dock will load.

 

[VoodooDaddy]

The dock files are in system>library>core services>dock>contents>resources called 'scurve'. You need to right-click on Dock and go "show package contents" to get into contents>resources. Back up the scurve files in here first as you will be rewriting them.

As the Dock is running, the easiest thing to do is use Terminal to force the newly downloaded files to overwrite the existing ones.

Open Terminal and go:

sudo cp /Users/<nameofyourhomefolder>/Downloads/scurve-m.png /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/scurve-m.png

Replace scurve-m.png with the files names of each of the files in DarkDock.

The in Terminal go killall Dock, and the new dock will load.

No reason whatsoever to go into terminal. Have activity monitor running first. Open the resources folder, delete the scurve files. You will have to type in your password. Copy and paste the new scurve files into the resources folder. Type in your password. Open activity monitor and force quit on the dock. New dock appears.

BTW, make backups of all files you delete beforehand so you can put everything back when you want/need to

 

[TheSpaz]

I can't believe nobody has made an App that uses core image to adjust the Dock files and then automatically add them to the Dock and restart it. It just makes so much sense. Then you wouldn't need Photoshop, Terminal or Activity Monitor. You'd just make your color adjustments (there could even be a fake Dock preview that shows you what your changed Dock will look like) and then hit Apply and your Dock would quit and come back with your changes made. It could even backup the original Dock so you can revert at any time. Someone make this App!